Winkler: Borrowing Needs to Stop

Golden Valley Rep. Ryan Winkler (DFL-District 44B) said he plans to introduce a constitutional amendment during the forthcoming special session that would prevent legislators from borrowing to resolve future budget impasses.

“We are constitutionally required to balance our budget every two years—that’s the right thing to do,” Winkler said in a news release. “Borrowing from our future revenues is simply using a loophole to skirt our constitutional responsibility and we should never do it again.”

The representative’s amendment would ban the use of appropriation bonds as a means to balance the budget, though the provision would not go into effect during the current shutdown. The latest budget deal being discussed would use $700 million in bonds, which would be paid back later with tobacco settlement money.

With interest tacked on, the full effect of borrowing now could be $1 billion or more, according to estimates.

“The consequences of this risky one-time borrowing are not fully known,” Winkler said. “All we know for certain is that we will be paying for this fiscal mistake for decades to come. A constitutional amendment would guarantee this is a one-time scheme”

Gov. Mark Dayton said late last week that he hoped to have a special session start on Monday, but budget negotiations continued through the weekend, and for now a budget deal remains on hold as Democrats and Republicans try to line up votes. The state government has been shut down since the fiscal year ended at midnight June 30.